


Labels are overrated

by seektheinfinite



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Angst, Bisexuality, Exploring Sexuality, First Kiss, Gen, emotional h/c
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 21:40:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9923204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seektheinfinite/pseuds/seektheinfinite
Summary: Liv has a moment with Gabby, Bernice over-reacts as usual and Robert picks up the pieces“Do you have any idea how offensive you’re being right now?” Robert questions, “Because really if you stopped and thought about it for a second you’d realise who you were speaking to.





	

They’re sitting in the park when it happens, it’s not something that she had planned, or even something she’d even considered before but it just felt right. Their shoulders touching, as they sat on the bench, watching some YouTube video with cats, that she just had to see. It was in that moment, as Gabby stopped laughing, eyes turned to Liv that she found herself leaning into to kiss her.

Their lips met for a second or two, before Gabby was pushing her back, jumping up from her spot on the bench next to Liv, a look of shock and anger on her face.

“What are you doing?” She questioned, taking a further step backwards.

“I…” Liv didn’t know how to answer that. What was she doing? Why had she just done that? She’d never had any desire to do anything like that before, but something in her had just compelled her to act, and her body was moving before her brain had time to catch up with it.

“Gabby,” Bernice practically screeched as she ran towards them, “are you okay?”

Liv could feel her cheeks flushing red as Gabby looked between her and her mum. She willed her not to say anything, to just forget about this and pretend it never happened. But she was certain from Bernice’s reaction that she had at least seen some of what had occurred between them.

Bernice took hold of Gabby’s arms, pulling her around to look her in the eye, “Gabby, did I just see what I think I saw? Did she,” she casts a look at Liv, “just kiss you?”

Gabby doesn’t say anything at first, eyes turned downwards, but she’s powerless against Bernice. “Yes, but…” She tries to finish but Liv is all too aware that when Bernice gets like this there is no stopping her and she’s not about to listen to anyone.

“Right,” she’s still holding Gabby’s arm as they start to make their way out of the park, “we’re going to see what Robert has to say about this. Just because her brother’s in prison doesn’t mean she can go around making unwanted advances on people.”

Bernice doesn’t bother looking at Liv, choosing to talk about her as if she’s not there.

Liv debates staying where she is. Once Bernice gets talking to Robert, no doubt she’s going to be in for a lecture when she gets home, and after what’s just happened she’s really not in the mood.

The only problem is that it’s cold and getting darker already, who knows how long Bernice is going to be with Robert. Once she gets going she just doesn’t let up.

Liv decides instead that she’ll just head back to the pub, sneak up to her room through the back and hide under the covers. Maybe that way she can pretend that none of this is happening, and she didn’t just make the biggest idiot out of herself, and probably lose her best friend in the process.

She’s sprinting past Gabby and Bernice now, needing to get to the pub before they do, because she really doesn’t want to be in the same room when Bernice talks to Robert; doesn’t even want to think about the expression on his face when he finds out what she’s done.

“Don’t think you can just run away young lady,” Bernice calls to her as she sprints past, not bothering to acknowledge her.

She reaches the door to the pub in no time, pushing her way in before slamming the door behind her. It’s just her luck that Robert happens to be coming out of the back room at the same time, and of course he can’t help but notice her distressed state.

“Liv,” he questions, “what happened? Are you okay?” He’s reaching a hand out to her now, to offer her some reassurance, but she doesn’t want it. She can’t accept it because she knows he’s going to feel different in a minute.

Thankfully she’s spared from having to come up with a suitable reply, by the sound of Bernice and Chas’s shouting drifting through the back room.

“I’ve told you that he’s busy,” Chas shouts, “you can’t go through there.”

“I don’t care what he’s doing,” Bernice counters, “he needs to know what that little madam has been up to. I’m not leaving here until I’ve spoken to him.”

Robert raises a questioning eyebrow at her, but he doesn’t say anything. Instead he turns to go back into the backroom to face Bernice, leaving her to make her way up the stairs.

She considers her original plan of simply running upstairs to hide but something in her wants to stay and hear what they’re going to say. So, she sits at the bottom of the stairs listening in on the conversation taking place in the other room.

 

~~

Robert enters the back room to find a livid Bernice, practically dragging a clearly embarrassed Gabby beside her. He wants to ask her to sit down, so that they can discuss whatever the problem is like adults, but then he remembers that this is Bernice and he’s not going to get any kind of adult conversation out of her when she’s in this kind of mood.

“Bernice,” Robert quips, “can I help you?”

“Yes, you can keep that little brat of yours in line,” Bernice splutters, “going around making unwanted advances on people. She can’t get away with it, you’ve got to do something with her.”

Robert watches as Gabby visibly shrinks further into herself in front of him, she’s clearly uncomfortable and doesn’t want to be here, and he wonders if this is just another case of Bernice over-reacting. She does tend to see Gabby as an angel, whilst anyone she interacts with a bad influence and always the instigator of any trouble

He wonders if he heard her right, because she just said something about making unwanted advances and that really doesn’t sound like Liv. “Unwanted advances,” he questions, “what kind of unwanted advances are we talking about?”

He can see Chas out of the corner of his eye, standing by the doorway, arms folded, face stern. She seems ready to intervene at any moment should he need backup but she obviously thinks he’s doing okay so far because she’s not said anything.

“I found them in the park,” Bernice shuffles her weight from one foot to the other, clearly uncomfortable, “Liv was kissing Gabby.”

“Okay,” Robert replies, waiting for the rest, because that can’t be it surely.

“What do you mean okay,” Bernice asks incredulous, “isn’t that enough? Kissing someone without their permission, when they’re clearly not, you know.”

Bernice is blushing now and Gabby, who he doesn’t think could huddle herself any smaller is inching her way back towards the door.

“No Bernice,” Robert replies, trying to keep his tone light, when all he wants to do is scream at her, “I don’t know.

“Well, it’s obvious isn’t it,” Bernice is waving her hand in the air, as though trying to search for the words, “Gabby’s not gay, she’s had boyfriends.”

Robert is shocked at the words coming out of her mouth, can’t believe he’s hearing this and in all honesty, he doesn’t know how to respond. It takes him a moment to think of the words, forcing himself to slow his breathing and stay calm. Getting angry isn’t going to help anyone, least of all Liv who he has no doubt is currently sitting on the other side of the door listening to this whole conversation.

“Do you have any idea how offensive you’re being right now?” Robert questions, “Because really if you stopped and thought about it for a second you’d realise who you were speaking to. There is such a thing as liking both guys and girls Bernice, it’s called being Bisexual; perhaps you’ve heard of it.”

Bernice at least has the decency to look embarrassed at Robert’s response and he can see Chas grinning at him from her position by the doorway.

“Gabby, are you okay?” Robert turns to Gabby now, ignoring Bernice’s look of shock as she realises that she hadn’t even thought to ask that herself.

“I’m fine,” Gabby mumbles, coming out of herself slightly to look at him, “it was just a kiss. I wasn’t expecting it that’s all, but I don’t want Liv to hate me or anything for pushing her away. It just, I don’t like her in that way, but I’m not bothered by it. It was just a mix up.“ She’s looking up at Bernice now, anger at the situation evident. “Mum just kind of grabbed me and dragged me. I wouldn’t have said anything.”

“Okay,” Robert nods, “well if you’re okay, and Liv is okay that’s all that matters right now. I think you,“ he turns to Bernice, “need to take your daughter home, so that I can make sure Liv is okay. She was pretty upset when she came in.”

Bernice flushes red at being dismissed so summarily, “Come on Gabby, we’ll talk at home.“ She’s pulling Gabby towards the door, pushing past Chas, needing to get out as soon as possible.

“Well done love, you handled that perfectly,” Chas says, “if it had been me I probably would have decked her one.”

Robert huffs a laugh at that, before nodding his thanks. “I better go and see if Liv is okay.”

“Yeah,” Chas agrees, “I’ll stick the kettle on for when you’re done.”

~~

Leaving the back room, Robert’s not surprised to find that Liv is exactly where he thought she would be. Curled into herself, head on drawn up knees, leaning against the bannister on the stairs.

“Hey,” he bumps his shoulder with her to get her attention, “you okay?“

“Go away,” she mumbles, not bothering to lift her head from her knees.

“Sorry, not going to happen,” he replies, before placing a hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay you know, you can talk to me about anything. I’m sure you heard all of that in there, so I know that Gabby’s okay. Now I need to know that you’re going to be okay.”

“I’m not,” Liv sighs, “I’m such an idiot. Why did I do that? I know Gabby said she doesn’t hate me but she was probably just saying that to shut her mum up.”

“Hey,” Robert’s rubbing her shoulder now, small comforting circles, “You’re not an idiot. This is new and scary and that’s okay. Trust me, it will help if you talk about it. I didn’t for a long time and look where that got me.”

“I don’t even know why I did it.” Liv lifts her head from her knees to look at him now. “We were just in the park and before I knew what I was doing I was kissing her. I’ve never even thought about her like that before.”

“Liv I,” Robert starts, he never imagined he’d be the one having this conversation, “I’m probably not the best person to talk to about this stuff but since I’m all you’ve got right now, we’ll have to muddle through together.”

“When I met Aaron, I’d only ever kissed a guy once before when I was your age actually. I’ve been attracted to other men, but I’ve never done anything about it before Aaron. I tried for a long time to deny who I was and that messed me up, a lot. I don’t want that to happen to you.”

“I don’t know,” Liv’s looking at him now, tears streaming down her already red cheeks, “Until today I’ve never had any feelings like that for a girl, how am I supposed to know what I like, boys, girls or both?”

She’s looking at him as though he should be able to give her all the answers, and he really wishes that he could but this is something that he’s still working on himself; coming to terms with his own bisexuality has been a recent development in his life.

“I wish I could answer that,” Robert sighs, “life would be a lot easier if we could have some little box that we could tick that said yep, I’m gay. Or yep, I’m bi, but it doesn’t work like that. Labels are over-rated anyway, I don’t like people’s obsessions with trying to shove people in boxes all the time.”

“I just want to be normal,” Liv leans into him, tears falling on his shoulder.

“There is no such thing as normal, Liv,” Robert strokes her arm, “you just need to do what makes you happy and what feels right for you. And there’s no rush, you don’t need to decide today that you’re gay, bi, or whether this was just a one time thing. You’ve got a whole lifetime ahead of you to figure these things out. I’ve only just got there myself and I’m 30.”

She laughs a little at that, before putting her arm around him for a hug. “Thanks Robert.”

“Anytime you want to talk, I’m here okay. Don’t shut me out, and don’t think you should go through stuff alone just because Aaron’s not here.”

**Author's Note:**

> Join me on Tumblr @beyondthebridge


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